THE RAGE (2007)
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GORE GORE GORE!! Makeup effects artist Robert Kurtzman has worked on acclaimed dramas like Pulp Fiction, Vanilla Sky and The Green Mile, though he seems to be most at home when working knee-deep in rivers of gore, as evidenced by his work on horror classics like Evil Dead II, From Dusk Till Dawn, Scream, and the fact that the few films he’s directed - most notably, 2007’s The Rage - are effects-heavy horror flicks featuring bloodshed and mutilations galore.
As far as B-splatter cinema goes, The Rage is a thing of beauty. While featuring some of the absolute worst CG found in straight-to-video horror cinema, the makeup effects - particularly as they apply to the “kill” scenes throughout the film - are stunning, audacious, and - for gore hounds - truly cheer-inducing. It feels like the filmmakers opted to pump their minuscule budget into their makeup and gore effects, and allow for the digital/CG shots to look like crap in deference to “the greater good” - totally fine by this viewer, who often found himself recoiling at the eye-gouging, gut-twisting, and…well, everything else that happens in this fast and fun 85 minute movie.
Want more incentive? There are flesh-eating zombie vultures, more than a few graphic dismemberments, a mad scientist played by Wishmaster’s Andrew Divoff, and a vicious Pulp Fiction-quoting midget who wears a dead girl’s face like a mask while wielding a dead monkey like a weapon. On a Thursday night with leftover pizza and a craving for bloody cinematic diversion, there are very few pitch-perfect splatter flicks like The Rage.
- Logan Crow
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